Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Bangladesh politics has fallen into chaos again. It started off with a small incident- some soldiers based in Dhaka University beaten up some students for no good reason. But this has caused widespread violence in Dhaka University and surrounding areas and subsequently resulted in withdrawal of troops from the university campus. But the students went on protesting against the army and the government and created a chaotic situation in Dhaka by smashing cars and public properties. Police dealt with situation heavily and as a result the violence erupted. The government has imposed curfew in 6 divisional headquarters until further notice, followed by stoppage of mobile phone service and restricted media coverage.

While I see the point of students’ anguish, and blame the soldiers responsible for the whole fiasco. I think the students over reacted to the whole situation. The students had no right to burn the cars and smash the properties of the innocent citizens. The university students in Bangladesh have grown a habit of living in a lawless environment during the past military and democratic governments. Killing spree was a usual phenomenon in the public university campuses in Bangladesh. Terrorists made the dormitories a safe haven for their network for years, and after the clashes it’s evident that terrorists are playing main role behind this anarchic situation in Dhaka.

I am happy that the army finally realized that it will not help the situation by having a garrison within the campus, so they packed up and left the campus. Having said that while the army was in the campus, there were no political and terrorist activities which were a common scene in public university campuses and were destroying the education system in Bangladesh. So the army deserves some credit for that.I was also happy that troops were withdrawn to pacify the situation, but clearly the terrorists were pushing the general students to continue the violent protests which forced the government to impose curfew.

By now, some of my readers may have started to think that I am supporting the caretaker government of Bangladesh illogically and blindly. For them I have a few questions I need answered.

If you are asking for the caretaker government to resign, who do you want to take over the government? The same old corrupted political parties? The same corrupted bunch of people who were killing people in the streets like butchers and were looting millions of dollars from the state treasury just under a year ago?

Bangladeshis have given the corrupted politicians 15 years in power, and in return they politicians have looted the country and killed the citizen. Why don’t you give the caretaker government couple of years to see if they can make a difference? The caretaker government has announced they are willing to hand over the power by 2008. Why don’t the Bangladeshis wait until then? Just give this government a chance. If they don’t resign after 2008, then they can always remove them in the same way they have removed the previous government. The big fishes of corruption are behind the bars. This violence is giving them hope of getting away from the crimes they have committed. Please don’t give them any hope or chance.

In my previous blogs, I have written that, some of the Bangladeshis are suffering from amnesia. How could they forget that during the period of October 2006 to January 2007 they were praying for a savior to help them free from the clutches of corrupted politicians? Now that they have the saviors and the corrupted politicians are behind the bars, they want their savior to be removed with the job undone? Can’t the Bangladeshis make their mind up?

I know that price hike in the commodities and inflation has been unbearable for the most of the people of Bangladesh. But the people of Bangladesh have to understand that, the price of food has only gone up because there are no supplies of rotten, out of date, low quality food in the market anymore. The process of food supply chain is experiencing a cleaning up operation, so there is a temporary effect of that in the market. Every change that brings good brings some hardship along the way. Bangladeshis will have to brave the hardship and get used to a strong civilized system. What the Bangladeshis have to understand is that, the members of the Caretaker government have formed the government in a chaotic situation to help the country. They have been appointed by the people to clean the Bangladeshi politics and corrupted system. They are doing the job. Obviously, there are some mistakes that have been made by them which primarily were due to their inexperience in politics. But with the passage of time, I am sure they will overcome the difficulties and be more adept in dealing with redress and commanding the armed forces. The members of the present government are highly educated and so far, have been honest (at least they don’t take bribe from the murderers-you know what I’m talking about). So please give them a chance.